The Anatomist Dissected
The Man-midwife Finely Brought to Bed Being an Examination of the Conduct of Mr. St. Andre. Touching the Late Pretended Rabbit-bearer
9781465637642
281 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
After that long and particular Detail of my self, and of my various Adventures in so many different and remote parts of the Globe, as I have lately entertain’d the Public with, I little thought any private Occurrence, in so small a Spot as the Island of Great Britain, could have rous’d my Attention, and broke in upon that Repose, in which I hop’d to have spent the Remains of a declining Life. But small and inconsiderable as it is, I consider it is my own Country; the Thought of which, together with that inextinguishable Thirst after Truth and Knowledge, in regard to my self, and an ardent Inclination of communicating it to others, have prevail’d upon me once more to be expos’d in Print, in order to express my Abhorrence of a late diabolical Imposture: propagated, not so much by the Knavery of some, as by the Ignorance and Stupidity of others. I need not say I mean the Rabbit Affair; with which, for some Weeks past, the Minds of the People of this Island have been so seriously and so surprizingly employ’d; so as scarce to leave them any Leisure for Things of a more sublime Nature, and of vastly greater Consequence and Importance. And tho’ I verily believe this to be the real and only Cause, why the Perusal of my Travels has been so neglected of late, which, by the Decay of the Sale, has sensibly affected a worthy and honest Bookseller; yet I declare to the World, that my Motives for entering the Lists against Mr. St. André (a Person to me wholly unknown, and unheard of till I saw his Name in the News-Papers, upon that unfortunate Accident, which befel him, when he fancied he was poyson’d) are, that little Skill which, by my Education and Experience, I have attain’d in Surgery and Anatomy, and that great Ignorance in both, which he has betray’d upon this Occasion. For tho’ that Gentleman’s Candor is very great in shewing such a remarkable Alertness, at confessing that he has been impos’d upon in this Paltry Business; and tho’ perhaps, by that he may flatter himself, that he shall escape all further Censure, yet I shall be at the Pains of Convincing the World that he is mistaken, even in this also; and that, had he not been most profoundly deficient in that discerning Penetration, with which all true Surgeons make Enquiries of this sort, he might have discover’d this Imposture at the very first Sight, and not have drawn in so many Persons of distinguish’d Sense and Figure, to be gull’d and deluded by so coarse and palpable a Fraud. For, to begin with his Narrative; a true Surgeon, one, I mean, orderly and properly educated in that worthy Profession, would never have suffer’d his Curiosity to be at all alarm’d by seeing a Letter from Guildford, which mention’d a Woman’s being deliver’d of five Rabbits: Suppose one were to see a Letter from Battersea, importing that a Woman there had been deliver’d of five Cucumbers, or indeed a hundred Letters, would that lead a Man of Sense to believe any Thing, but, either that the People who wrote those Letters had been grossly impos’d upon themselves, or intended to impose upon him. Either of these two Things may, and do happen every Day; but it was never known, that ever any Creature brought forth any one Creature of a Species in all Respects different from it self, much less five or seventeen such Creatures; for which therefore, a Man of common Sense, much more a penetrating and quicksighted Anatomist, should look upon all such Letters with the utmost Contempt.
